Heatwave
by spnfalls
Summary: The Pines reunite at the Mystery Shack for another summer in Gravity Falls. (Set 1 year after the show, so the twins are almost 14.)
1. Chapter 1

"Woo!" Mabel Pines cheered, pumping her fists into the air and standing up on her seat. "We're back!" Her pet pig Waddles, who was lying curled up next to her, oinked happily.

"Sit down, Mabel," her twin brother, Dipper, told her tiredly as the bus driver shot them an irritated look. "You can get up and be hyperactive in a few minutes. The Mystery Shack's not that far away." Mabel sighed, and plopped back down in her seat.

"Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford are gonna be here, right?" Mabel asked for possibly the hundredth time.

"I've already told you they are," Dipper responded, not looking up from his book. "They did their monster hunting thing and now they're back. Soos made Grunkle Stan take his old job back. I think Soos likes being a handyman than a tour guide."

"So it'll be like nothing has changed," Mabel exclaimed happily. "You know, except for the fact that we're older."

"And there's no journal."

"And Grunkle Stan doesn't have a rivalry with the Gleefuls anymore."

"And there's no Bill to worry about anymore…"

Mabel eyed Dipper with concern. "You're not still constantly thinking about Bill, are you?" she asked. "He's gone now. He can't hurt us anymore." He looked away. _Not physically…_ Dipper thought, but he knew better than to say it out loud. Whenever he confessed to having nightmares in front of Mabel, she wouldn't stop worrying about him until the next day when he pretended to be fine. He hadn't talked to her about it in several months. Thankfully they had their own rooms back in Piedmont so it didn't matter that much. But here…

"Hey Dipper we're here we're here we're here!" Mabel shouted in delight, pointing out the window. They had arrived at the bus stop and it looked like the whole town had come out to greet them. There was Lazy Susan, Manly Dan and even Toby Determined.

"HI EVERYONE!" Mabel shouted, standing on the tips of her toes so that her head was sticking out of the window. She waved at everyone eagerly and they all cheered.

"You know, Mabel, that would be a lot easier outside," Dipper pointed out. "Get your stuff and get Waddles. We can say hi out there." Mabel turned around to reply, but Dipper was already at the front of the bus thanking the driver, his backpack strapped securely on his back. Mabel grabbed her stuff and pulled Waddles into her arm, then ran to the front and went by Dipper to get outside.

"MABEL!" two familiar girls screamed, pulling the brunette into a hug. Mabel squealed happily and hugged them back. Grenda and Candy, the two girls Mabel had befriended last summer. They met at a party when Mabel went up against-

"Hey! Pacifica!" Mabel called to the blonde standing a few feet away. Pacifica smiled and nodded her greeting, a sign that the two were on good terms.

"What, your great uncles don't get a dramatic reunion hug either?" a voice asked from behind. Grenda and Candy finally let their friend go and Mabel turned around, coming face to face with her two favourite men - after Dipper, of course - in the whole world.

"GRUNKLE STAN!" Mabel yelled, jumping into Stanley Pines' open arms. "GRUNKLE FORD!" she cried when Ford joined their hug.

"Where's the other one anyway?" Stan asked with a laugh, looking around. Dipper was standing next to them a little shyly. Stan gave out a bark of laughter and pulled his great nephew into their double Pines twins hug.

"Grunkle Stan," Dipper chuckled, pushing the man away playfully. "Hi, Great Uncle Ford," he greeted Stanford, sending him a smile. Ford returned it.

"I have a good feeling about this summer," Mabel told them happily.

"Mabel, you said that _last_ summer," Dipper pointed out.

"And last summer was great!"

The four Pines' sat at the table in the kitchen, catching up on each others lives as they ate breakfast-for-dinner.

"And that's how we defeated the _real_ Gobblewonker!" Stan said triumphantly. At this point, he was standing up with one fist raised.

"You can sit down now, Stanley," Ford told his brother. He then directed his attention to the twins. "So what have you two done this past year?"

"I got an actual boyfriend!" Mabel informed them. "He's really nice and not puppet-crazy." Dipper shivered involuntarily at the last part.

"Dipper?" Ford asked. "Are you okay?"

"Hmm?" Dipper responded, staring off into space. He shook his head and looked back up. "Oh, uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure?" Ford questioned. Dipper nodded.

"You won't _believe_ it, Grunkle Ford!" Mabel shouted, standing up on her chair. "We've only been in high school for one year and Dipper's already taking senior classes!"

"Really?" Ford asked her, impressed.

"Of course he is," Stan smirked. "The little runt's related to you, Poindexter. He's gotta have _some_ smarts tucked up into that brain of his."

"He sure does," Mabel insisted, getting overly excited. "He's on the honor roll."  
"Wow," Ford remarked, looking at his great nephew. "Good job, Dipper."

"Thanks," Dipper responded, smiling a little bit. When Dipper didn't elaborate on his school work - like Ford expected - Mabel went on to inform the two men about her being in the drama club. Stan was fully engrossed in the conversation but Ford was only half paying attention. He watched as Dipper picked at his food like he really didn't want to eat, an action that the old scientist was all too familiar with.

"Why don't you two run on up to the attic and get set up?" Ford suggested, bringing the conversation to a halt. "I'm sure its been a pretty long day for you two and it's starting to get late."

"Yeah," Mabel agreed. "Last one up is a rotten egg!" she called as she was already going up the stairs. Dipper rolled his eyes and walked, not bothered to try and catch up.


	2. Chapter 2

Mabel was basically set up by the time Dipper got to their room. Her side had already been decked out with posters and stuffed animals. Waddles was happily curled up in the bed Mabel had insisted on buying from the pet shop back home. Dipper smirked at the memory of their parents' reactions to them bringing a pig home. Their mom freaked out and their dad immediately went off to call 'Stanford' Pines. Their Grunkle had already left for his voyage with his brother so there was no response, and the two parents were stuck with a pig.

"Dipper!" Mabel called from her bed, holding her arms up in the air. "What do you think?"

"I think all that's changed is a lack of Sev'ral Timez posters," Dipper told her, tossing his bags onto the ground next to his own mattress. He sat down and started to pull pajamas out.

"Aren't you gonna decorate your side?" Mabel questioned.

"I'll do it in the morning," Dipper shrugged, heading out to the bathroom so he could get changed. As he was changing he looked at himself in the mirror. He could swear there was still a faint circle-shaped scar from when Bill zapped a hole through his stomach, even if it did only happen in a dream.

"Hurry up, Dipstick!" Mabel shouted through the door. "You're not the only one who has to get changed. I'm the one with makeup and stuff."

"I've been in here for about ten seconds," he said in response, unlocking the door and heading back to the mirror so he could brush his teeth. "And since when do you wear makeup?" he asked.

"Since I got a boyfriend, dummy," she answered with a small grin. Dipper rolled his eyes. If he had to hear the word boyfriend one more time… The guy in question, a blond boy called Will, wasn't too bad. Dipper was just protective. Especially considering all of Mabel's 'summer romances' from last summer. He wondered how much Mabel had told Will about the twins' time in Gravity Falls, if anything.

"You were pretty quiet at dinner," Mabel commented as she scrubbed at her face with some sort of wash. Dipper would never understand why girls cared so much about their appearance. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Dipper said, washing his mouth out and putting his toothbrush away. "It's just being back here. Brings back a lot of memories."

"True," Mabel agreed with a firm nod. "But the great thing about this summer is that we can make more happy memories to get rid of the bad ones!" Dipper just nodded and left the room. As he walked down to his and Mabel's bedroom he heard Stan and Ford's voices from downstairs. They were talking quietly enough that Dipper couldn't quite understand what they were saying, but they sounded urgent. He only caught onto a few words from Ford. "Dinner…spaced out…worried…Dipper…"

At the sound of his own name, Dipper snuck down the stairs to listen to their conversation.

"He's probably just tired, Sixer," he heard Stan say. He could imagine his Grunkle shrugging.

"Either way it's not good," Ford responded. "What are we supposed to do if Dipper keeps it up? What if it's because of being back here and a bunch of bad memories are coming back? Are we supposed to send him back home or something?"

"Calm down," Stan sighed. Dipper could practically hear him rolling his eyes. "Look. If it comes down to it, we'll send the kid home. Don't need him getting too upset. But what will his sister say?"

"She'll understand," Ford said. Whatever the two talked about after that, Dipper didn't know because he stopped listening. He did _not_ want to be sent home, and he DEFINITELY didn't want his family thinking he couldn't handle being back. He would prove to them that he was fine because he was.

Dipper woke up late the following morning. He was surprised that he felt so rested but even more shocked that he didn't have a nightmare. Maybe he was just being paranoid about Gravity Falls. Sure there were still a couple of creatures around. But the place was free of sadistic triangles with top hats, and that was the important thing.

The 'technically a teen' walked through the unusually quiet Mystery Shack and went downstairs. When he arrived in the kitchen a note was taped to the fridge.

Hey Dipper, I took your sister into town. Feel free to join us. Ford's in his nerd lab if you need anything. -Stan

Dipper took the piece of paper off and put it in the bin, then went to get himself some cereal. He ate it quickly and got changed even quicker. Rather than last years orange-shirt, grey-shorts and blue-vest look, he now wore jeans and an array of shirts. If it was cold he'd throw on a hoodie too.

Dipper went out into the gift shop part of the house and just looked around. Nothing had changed. It was still the same overpriced merchandise as last summer. It brought an odd sense of comforting familiarity and home. It was nice.

As Dipper walked out to the town it felt oddly calming to be back here, despite all of the events of Weirdmageddon. Maybe coming back was what he needed. Just to reassure himself that _it's all over. Everything's fine._ It had been a little bit hard to grasp that right after leaving but now it was fine. Everything was fine. It always would be.

Dipper greeted everyone who approached him politely and happily, not feeling nearly as socially awkward as normal. In school, he was always seen as a freak. Just some nerd who kept to himself. Completely unbelievable since his sister was so popular and outgoing. But here he felt like an equal.

"Dipper!" a familiar voice called. Dipper looked over and watched as a young blonde girl ran up to him.

"Hi, Pacifica," he said kindly, no longer feeling any sort of resentment towards her like when they had met. After the whole ghost fiasco at her house, they had become friends. "Long time no see."

"It's been way too long," she agreed, smiling. "Did you get taller?" Dipper realized that she was having to look up at him a bit now, but before they were at eye level.

Dipper scratched the back of his head with an awkward grin on his face. "I guess I have," he responded. "How have things been in Gravity Falls?"

"Good," she responded. "No monsters. Except for the occasional gnome stealing a pie, but the town accepted it ages ago. I think Lazy Susan is deliberately baking extras and putting them on the windowsill of the diner so they get something to eat."

"That's cool," Dipper nodded, and the two stood in a somewhat awkward silence. They stayed like that for several seconds before one of Pacifica's friends came over to retrieve her.

"How long does it take to say hi, Paz," the girl asked with a slightly devious smirk. Pacifica flushed bright red and quickly said goodbye to Dipper before she was dragged off to the other side of the road. Including Pacifica, about five girls stood there whispering behind their hands, constantly glancing back at Dipper. He felt his face start to blush and turned away, but not before the girls could notice. They giggled and walked off. Dipper hoped the whole summer wouldn't be like that. Way too awkward.


End file.
